Befitting a sport that combines the athleticism of basketball with the outrageousness of American Gladiator, eight-year-old slamball has had a history of dives and rebounds.

The genius of the game, played on a court embedded with trampolines, is that even shrimpy point guards can spring 15 feet into the air and throw down a ­LeBron James-style slam dunk (hence the name). The sport not only races through its 30 minutes at Super Mario speed, but also has body checks like football and on-the-fly substitutions like hockey. Yet after two low-rated seasons on cable television, in 2002 and 2003, slamball flamed out quickly, leaving its inventor, former college basketball player Mason Gordon, back at square one. For the next four years, Gordon pitched slamball to new investors and broadcasters—Italian television replayed parts of the 2003 season last year—but failed to persuade anyone to place a big bet.

That is, until now. Gordon has scored the backing of the unlikeliest of cheerleaders: former HBO chief Chris Albrecht. Last seen exiting Time Warner after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend (to whom he is now engaged), Albrecht is the newly installed head of the sports and entertainment firm IMG’s global media division. When Gordon’s partner, Mike Tollin, approached Albrecht last fall, Albrecht agreed to put up $5 million of IMG’s money for half ownership of the sport. Now IMG has a broadcast deal with the cable channel Versus, formerly the Outdoor Life Network, to televise the first matchups this fall, and CBS will run slamball finals after a football game in November.

The question, yet again, is whether anyone will watch. Finding viewers for a new sport is, of course, notoriously hard. Arena football has bounced from network to network for 20 years without much of a following, and the all-female American Basketball League folded after two seasons, in 1998. But in slamball, Albrecht sees opportunities. One is the chance to reach the Grand Theft Auto generation, building a following not on local courts but on television, videogame screens, and the internet. More important, he feels the ultimate-fighting quality of slamball represents a leap forward for tradition-bound IMG, best known for developing talent in country-club sports like tennis and golf. “It’s important to be one of the forward thinkers in the business,” Albrecht says. “You have to be out there placing new bets.”